Welcome to Proverbs 31 Wannabe where Alexis Heaslip, a stay at home mother of two and follower of Jesus, shares her personal walk with Christ. Her goal it to help women explore the Bible and walk with Jesus by being a Proverbs 31 Wannabe. In this episode, we begin to explore why it is so important to stand for life in a world of darkness.
Abortion Effects on Women’s Mental Health- https://www.jpands.org/vol22no4/coleman.pdf
The American Pregnancy Association- https://americanpregnancy.org/unplanned-pregnancy/abortion/
The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 1991- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6682630/
Planned Parenthood Annual Report-
Abortion Procedure-
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Transcript:
11 January 2023
Podcast Intro (1-2 min)
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Intro-Hi there and welcome to Proverbs31 Wannabe where we discuss biblical womanhood in our constantly busy and sometimes crazy daily life. I’m Alexis Heaslip and as a wife and mother of two, I am always striving and praying to be a Proverbs 31 woman of faith. Last week you heard my testimony of how God used my life experiences to draw me back to Him. If you missed last week’s episode, take a pause, go back and listen because you don’t want to miss out. Part of that drawing back was seeing whether or not I would stand by my conviction that all life is sacred from womb to tomb, and although it wasn’t easy and temptations were there, I drew into the Word and rediscovered the love that our creator has for His creation- including myself, my children, and others in my community from the oldest to the youngest.
But the world around us doesn’t see the value in the most vulnerable in our communities. Although Roe was appealed in the Supreme Court (which is a great first step), states still have the ability to decide whether or not to keep abortions legal in their borders.
On top of the legal standing in our country, whenever somebody even mentions their stance on abortion, you either get one of two things depending on your stance- praise for being a champion of what the world believes or you are a backwards hypocrite who is behind the times and canceled because you go against the tide of the world.
I can see why some of you guys who love life and want life to be valued at all stages might be slow to speak out on this. You don’t want to lose friends over this. You don’t want to upset family members who disagree with you, and maybe you’re afraid of what your boss would do if you took a more vocal stance. You don’t want to ruffle the feathers, and I totally get that because I’ve been there myself. But I also know that Jesus says that we are to go out and teach others, and to not be afraid even if it means you lose some friends in the process. In Matthew 5:11-12 Jesus says “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.” People who stand up for the Gospel of Jesus have been ridiculed, persecuted, and sometimes martyred because they weren’t willing to let go of the truth of the Gospel. 11 of the 12 apostles were killed for their faith. People have been arrested for simply praying in front of an abortion clinic in Europe. The beast that is social media tries to ruin people’s careers over their stances on abortion. Businesses are providing more attention and more care to providing support and services and time off for a woman to have an abortion rather than providing support for women who are requesting maternity leave. And yet, those who know the truth that life is precious from womb to tomb continue to put themselves in the line of fire to protect those who need it most.
Some of you are probably thinking: Ok that all sounds accurate and I know you are right, but how can I go about standing for life in our communities and in our world where it’s extremely countercultural? What are some things that I can do to be an advocate for the vulnerable? Does one person saying no to abortion really make a difference?
Today we are going to start to explore just that. Let’s dive on in.
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Be Aware
The first note is that you need to be aware of a couple of things. There is so much out there about abortion -whether it’s on social media online. There is so much misinformation and, from my experiences, a lot of people will give their opinions on abortion without even knowing how an abortion procedure works, how it affects the woman who has an abortion, and just how much organizations like Planned Parenthood make from abortions. I have in the show notes links for studies and articles that go in-depth on these subjects so please take a look. I’ll share with you some statistics and facts that stand out. Approximately 3,000 abortions take place each day. Planned Parenthood states in their 2020-2021 annual report that they provided 383,460 abortions in this year. In their 2019-2020 report, it showed that abortion made up 96.6% of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy resolution services, while prenatal services, miscarriage care, and adoption referrals accounted for only 2.2% (8,775), 0.7% (2,793) and 0.5% (1,940), respectively. The report also shows that Planned Parenthood has more than $2.1 billion in net assets, up from $2 billion the previous year.
If you are wanting to know how an abortion procedure works, I have a link below that explains it. I won’t go into details on the show since it’s graphic and I know many viewers have children but please take the time to learn about how an abortion procedure works so that you can have educated and hopefully productive discussions with people on abortion.
Women who have abortions are 81% more likely to experience mental health problems including but not limited to suicide, depression, insomnia, and substance abuse. Along with the risks abortion poses to mental health, there are also an extensive amount of risks to the physical health of a woman, including but not limited to damage to the cervix, persistent bleeding, scarring of the uterine lining, future premature births or miscarriage, and an increased risk for breast cancer.
I know I just threw a bunch of information out to you, but unless we have the knowledge about what is truly going on we can’t use it to change hearts. Proverbs 19:2 tells us that “Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes” That is why I am sharing these truths with you- so that you feel comfortable and prepared to have accurate discussions about abortion and provide correction when somebody argues something that isn’t factual. I love how the Lord put such a verse like this in His Word- He knew that we would be faced with challenges like abortion and He wants us to realize that we have to be prepared and put in the work so that we can create change in the world.
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Now that we are armed with facts, and have taken the time to become aware, what’s next? Do we just go out and ramble out all these facts to whoever walks down the street? I have seen people try to do just this and it doesn’t seem to go over well. But there are four ways that you can create conversation, make change, and have an impact on the community. I’ll only go over one of those ways in this episode and we will continue the conversation next week.
The first and most important thing that you can do to stand for life is actually quite simple and overlooked- you can pray and read the Word of God daily. God wants us to pray boldly. He wants us to praise Him, rest in Him, ask for guidance about all aspects of our life. Prayer is our way of connecting with God and growing in our relationship with Him. So why not pray to God about abortion. John 15:7-12 says “But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.” You see, Jesus wants us to do His will. He wants us to know His word so that we are able to keep it in our hearts and have it impact our decisions. When I hear that all we have to do is ask Him and He will provide, that makes my heart jump a little inside. My heart jumps because that shows you just how powerful God really is and that we should be putting our trust in Him more. Just yesterday I was at my mom’s group at church and we talked about the importance of prayer. The study we are doing together is one by Chip Ingram and I love how he reminded us to pray boldly. What a bold prayer we can do- to pray for people to realize how destructive abortion is and that it is something that ceases to exist. Chip writes out all of his big prayer goals on a piece of paper and refers back to them throughout the year. Although the results of his prayers weren’t always immediate and weren’t always seen right away, some spanning years, he was able to see the change over time in his prayer life and in his life around him because of the consistent prayer over the big issues facing him. That is the type of bold and consistent praying we should be doing over abortion. From reading passages in scripture like Psalm 139:13-16 which says “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
Or Psalm 127:3-5 which says “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them! He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city gates.”
Or Luke 1:41,44 which shows a pre-born baby leaping in the womb, for it says “At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy.”
These scriptures are just some of the many that show how much God loves, creates, and breathes life into the unborn. When we pray for them, we are praying for His will to be done. And with our persistent prayer, abortion will come to an end.
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Recap- Before we close, I want to practice what I’m preaching and pray. Let’s bow our heads and talk to our Father.
Lord, I come before you as your child. You breathe life into all of us and we should be people who value and respect your creation. But this is a fallen world, and so many people have lost sight of the truth that all people are precious, valued, and loved by You, abortion has become the societal norm, and is even become something that people celebrate. Lord, help us to be a light in a world that is so dark. Help us to be vessels for your Word and Your will. We want abortion to become something that is unthinkable. Lord, hep us to find the words whenever we are in a conversation with a friend and abortion comes up. Give us the peace in our hearts so that we can speak your truth in love to others. Lord, I pray that as our country continues to discuss abortion, that our lawmakers hear the voice of the people crying out for the unborn and just laws are passed to protect the most vulnerable. We love you, Lord. We turn to you. Amen.
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Call to action: Thanks to listening to Proverbs31 Wannabe. We hope you enjoyed the program. If you enjoy our show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts—and be sure to come back next week as we continue to talk about why and how a Proverbs 31 Wannabe woman stands for life. Until then, this is Alexis Heaslip, and I hope you have a great rest of your day. God bless.
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